While major media outlets recently joined forces to deny Donald Trump's claim that illegal immigration is hurting “black jobs,” experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the former president is right that the problem is all too real.

“Millions of people coming through the border happen to work jobs that are held by black people,” Trump said during a question-and-answer session with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). according to The remarks drew criticism from corporate media, Politico reported. outlet1 and Needless to say Some people claim that “black jobs” don't exist, while others rely on experts to Characterize of Claims But in reality, immigration has a negative impact on wages and employment, and experts say undocumented immigrants disproportionately affect industries and areas where black Americans work. (Related: Majority of Americans want less immigration for first time in years: poll)

Immigration has been the cause of black unemployment for “more than 200 years.” Andre Burns “We are excited to be working with the DCNF to bring this to fruition,” NumbersUSA’s director of Historically Black Colleges and Universities engagement told DCNF.

“During World War I, immigration was stopped and suddenly northern factories didn't have enough workers, so where did they go for labor? Black Americans,” Burns told DCNF. “We had the Immigration Act of 1924, which reduced immigration from 700,000 a year to less than 200,000 a year, and it stayed at less than 200,000 a year for over four years. What did we see in that period? Black employment increased. Black economic power increased.”

To those who doubt the impact of immigration on black employment, Burns points to the example of Smithfield Foods' slaughterhouse in Tar Heel, North Carolina, which lost 1,500 immigrant workers in a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. according to It was reported in the New York Times in 2008. After the raids, the percentage of black workers at the factory increased from 20% to 60%.

“When we talk about Black employment, we're talking about this situation here,” Burns said. “We're talking about meatpacking jobs that were predominantly Black in the '90s and early 2010s, and that's what people should be talking about when they talk about Black employment.”

In fiscal year 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had more than 2 million interactions at the southern border. according to According to CBP data, 1.7 million “fugitives” have evaded border patrol since President Joe Biden took office. according to To the House Homeland Security Committee.

Most of the illegal immigrants are from Mexico. according to According to July data from the Pew Research Center, these illegal immigrants are overrepresented in several low-skill sectors, including agriculture, construction and manufacturing. according to Submitted to Pew Research, 2020.

EJ Antoni, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation's Grover M. Herman Federal Budget Center, told DCNF that because black workers make up a large portion of the low-skilled workforce, an influx of mostly low-skilled immigrant workers means black Americans will face wage and employment pressures.

“When President Trump says illegal immigrants are taking jobs from black people, I [other] “The way to interpret it is that they're competing with black Americans who are in those jobs,” Antoni said, “and because of increased competition, they're losing those jobs. The majority of black people are unskilled workers, and it has nothing to do with skin color.”

Immigration reduces wages and employment, especially in black communities, by increasing the labor force. according to This is according to a 2010 study by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which found that immigration affects black Americans more than other groups because black communities are “disproportionately employed in a low-skill labor market.”

Gordon Hanson, a professor of urban policy at Harvard University and co-author of a 2006 National Bureau of Economic Research study on immigration and black employment, told DCNF that immigration has an impact on the labor market, but since 2006, more has been learned about how immigration affects specific demographics and which industries and regions of the US are most vulnerable.

“We know that the impact of immigration on the labor market depends more on occupation and location than on demographic characteristics like race or ethnicity,” Hanson told DCNF. “When there are groups in the labor market, such as black, Hispanic, and other workers who live in areas with declining local economies or whose education and experience levels expose them to the negative effects of general economic forces like globalization and technological change, these groups may be disproportionately affected by such negative changes. But the impact on these workers is not because of their race or ethnicity; it's because of the segment of the labor market that these workers happen to occupy.”

A 10% increase in the number of workers due to immigration was associated with a 4% decrease in wages for black workers, a 3.5% decrease in employment, and a 0.8% increase in black incarceration. according to A 2006 report to the NBER found that for white men, wages fell 4.1 percent, employment fell 1.6 percent, and white incarceration rates increased by just 0.1 percent.

The Biden administration in June began limiting new asylum claims at the southern border if the weekly daily average exceeded 2,500. But the job growth touted by the administration has relied heavily on immigrant workers, with foreign-born workers holding significantly more jobs overall than native-born Americans.

“Illegal immigration disproportionately impacts Black and other minority workers, and we must do everything we can to prevent their jobs from being taken away,” Trump spokeswoman Carolyn Leavitt told the DCNF, noting that about 1.1 million illegal immigrants have entered the US. work 943,000 jobs went to foreign-born workers, while 100,000 U.S.-born workers Decreased According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in the past year.

“Black unemployment remains higher than it was under President Trump,” Leavitt said, “and real wages for Black Americans are lower under a Biden-Harris administration. That's why President Trump has promised the largest deportation campaign in American history since President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Kamala Harris will offer amnesty and citizenship to all 15 million illegal immigrants, making permanent the attack on Black American jobs.”

As an independent, nonpartisan news service, all content produced by the Daily Caller News Foundation is available free of charge to any legitimate news publisher with a large readership. All republished articles must include our logo, reporter byline, and affiliation with the DCNF. If you have any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact us at licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.